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The head of the Japanese permanent mission to the United Nations, Foreign Minister Mr. Kiichi?

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The head of the Japanese permanent mission to the United Nations, Foreign Minister Mr. Kiichi Miyazawa on tuesday (23 September) urged the General Assembly to consider orderly moves towards the peaceful reunification of Korea.

Mr. Miyazawa's appeal came as part of a wider plea for all states to comply with last May's Treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and for those states already possessing nuclear arms to exert more effort towards nuclear disarmament.

Relations between North and South Korea -- strained earlier this year after each side accused the other of planning to invade -- have been made worse by North Korea's refusal to open fresh talks on unification and South Korea's recent unsuccessful attempt to gain separate membership of the United Nations.

Speaking about the situation in southeast Asia in general, the Japanese Foreign Minister told the General Assembly that peace in Korea was essential to the development and rehabilitation of Indochina following the end of the conflict there. He urged that the solution to Korea's problems should come through dialogue, not confrontation.

Japan -- along with the U.S.A., Britain, Canada, Costa Rica, the Netherlands and New Zealand -- has sponsored a resolution allowing United Nations command forces to withdraw from Korea by next January if a suitable agreement between North and South Korea is achieved. This would replace the armistice which ended the Korean war in 1953.